New Jersey Libertarian Party

The NJLP has several methods of party communication. Of course there is this website that has articles of interest to NJ state residents and a calendar of our upcoming events. The site also hosts a forum where you can discuss and comment on each article on the website.

Members receive our monthly newsletter. Consider joining as a member, this also gives you a vote at our general meetings.

Interested parties should consider subscribing to our NJLP announce list! Our announce list is used for official party announcements only, subscribing won't get you a ton of junk email messages, only the occasional party announcement. Subscribe by visiting our Party Info page and enter your email address.

Other lists you may want to look into include our activists list and liberty-talk. To join activists you must be invited. It is a private email discussion list for NJLP activists only.

Liberty-talk is not owned or managed by the NJLP, but quite a few NJLP members are on this list. Liberty-talk is a list used for open discussion on liberty. To join send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

We are extremely pleased to announce the details for this year's Convention. We are holding the Convention at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ.

The Convention will be held on March 12th from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Party's Business Meeting will be held on morning of March 12th and will be open to all. Registration will be required for the afternoon events, which include a luncheon and speakers. Our full convention package includes lunch on Saturday and afternoon speakers with coffee and refreshments available all day.

Speakers include NJ gun law victim Brian Aitken; producer John Papola; Frank Fiamingo, President of the NJ Second Amendment Society; and award wining author F. Paul Wilson.

Read more about our speakers and register on our convention page...

On January 6th, Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker introduced assembly bill A3657 that would require all bicycles to be registered with the DMV and display a license plate. If the owner is less than 15 years old the bill permits the parents to register the bicycle instead. Applicants would be required to divulge the year, make, color, weight, serial number, date of purchase, name and address of owner (or the parent if the owner is under 15), and the amount of sales tax paid on the bike.

The name of Newark International Airport was changed to Newark Liberty International Airport shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In true Orwellian fashion this change was accompanied with authoritarian changes. The managers closed off sections that used to be large open indoor spaces. Passenger screenings became more invasive. Everyone was told to keep their eyes out and report any “suspicious activity”. A new federal department took over security at the airport. This year, the TSA took a large step towards authoritarianism by forcing passengers to choose between X rated X-ray screening or groping by security agents.

NJLP life member and former NJLP chairman Michael Pierone of White Township (Warren County) was appointed, as a Libertarian, to the Board of Education of the Warren County Vocational School District. His term began January 1, 2011 and expires on December 31, 2014. Following is a media article on Mike's appointment:

Freeholders to consider appointing open government advocate to Warren County Technical School Board

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

By BILL WICHERT

The Express-Times

WHITE TWP. | More than two years after suing Warren County over an open records request, township resident Michael Pierone is being tapped by county officials to join the newly revamped Warren County Technical School Board.

County freeholders are scheduled to vote at 7 tonight Pierone's appointment to the school board. Over the last two months, the school board has shrunk from seven to five members, and four previous representatives have left the board.

After working on the outside as an open government advocate, the 54-year-old Pierone said he was looking for an inside look at how government operates

"I'm interested in representing the taxpayer," Pierone said Tuesday. "I want to have a better understanding of how everything works and what they're doing."

A former chair of New Jersey's Libertarian Party -- he ran for Congress more than 20 years ago -- Pierone runs a company called Micro Design Systems, which provides web design, web hosting and information technology services.

Read the full story...

In the Huffington Post, Christine Walsh of the Institute for Justice tells the story of home owners in Mount Laurel who have been harassed and threatened by their town council. 200 homes have been torn down, leaving the Gardens neighborhood in rubble. Bulldozers are parked in front of those who have refused to leave as a stark reminder of the threat to these homes. The town intends to give the remaining homes to Keating Urban Developers, a Philadelphia company.This story was covered by Free Talk Live on Monday.

The New York Post has published a poorly written story on activist and NJLP member, Julian Heiklen. The story was also discussed by the Libertarian News Examiner.

What was he smoking when he wrote this?

A pro-pot libertarian activist who’s been repeatedly busted in front of the Manhattan federal courthouse has defied a judge’s order to stop sending him letters.

Julian Heicklen, 78, told Manhattan federal Judge Richard Holwell that he’ll cease only when Holwell recuses himself from Heicklen’s civil-rights case, "as I have requested previously."

"In the event that you are considering a contempt of court charge against me, you have misjudged the situation," Heicklen wrote in a letter filed today.

"My feeling toward this court is not contempt. It is hatred, intense hatred."

Heicklen, 78, is suing the Department of Homeland Security and numerous other defendants over his arrests, which took place while he was distributing pamphlets urging jurors to acquit defendants if they don’t agree with the law.

Holwell told Heicklen to "direct all correspondence regarding non-dispositive matters" to Magistrate Judge James Cott.

I keep getting anti-immigration emails from right wing groups claiming all sorts of things about The Dream Act. As someone who supports a free market and free people, I think this is a good bill. It still has too much bureaucracy and doesn't apply to enough immigrants however.

Most of the right wing groups emails that I am getting claim that this is a give away of student aid and provides free college tuition. The bill has none of that in it. In fact it limits financial aid to loans only, work study, and Title IV aid. This is all subject to the same rules as any other student and does not provide for any special aid for illegal immigrants.

Immigrants who take advantage of the Dream Act are given a 10 year conditional non-immigrant status. They are no longer eligible if they "become a public charge" (i.e. become dependent on the state). Eligibility is removed for a list of other reasons.

Examples of individuals using guns to defend themselves abound. A simple Google search has turned up the following:

• This past Thursday in Houston, a store owner shot three robbers who had tied up his wife.
• On Saturday a business owner shot and killed a robber at her Fresno, CA video game store.
• Also on Saturday in Georgia, a man shot a knife wielding robber in a parking lot.
• On Monday, a man in Kansas shot a would be robber in his apartment.
• Earlier this month in Georgia, a liquor store clerk shot and killed one of the two men attempting to rob him.
• In Tennessee a pizza delivery driver used a handgun to defend himself against three robbers, killing one of them.
• Just after Thanksgiving, a homeowner defended his family against a home intruder in Arkansas.
• This past summer an 11 year old girl defended herself with her mother's rifle in her Albuquerque home.

Meanwhile here in New Jersey Brian Aitken sits in jail merely for having weapons and ammunition locked in the trunk of his car. Law abiding New Jersey residents are left with little options for self defense.

There's been a lot going on for the past week or two surrounding the WikiLeaks release of a number of secret diplomatic cables. The release of the leaked cables must be considered separately from what's been going on in its wake.

We've got the right to know what our government is doing. In fact, since our society is "government of the people, by the people, for the people", I'd argue that we have an obligation to keep an eye on the government. But that is in tension with the government's own responsibility to defend us: some things, like military strategy or, yes, diplomatic proceedings, need to be held close to the vest to be effective at all. This leads to a sort of Catch-22. We need to police the government, but we can't know what it's doing.

I think the only way to resolve the paradox is on a case-by-case basis. Given our current environment, it seems to me that we must come out in favor of disclosure. There is just too much evidence of the government lying to us, with politicians doing what's in their own interest rather than the nation's.